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Wednesday, March 22, 2017

WDW Trip Report: Epcot Gets Artful! Like, More So Than Usual!

My family's most recent visit to Walt Disney World was a bit of a doozy. There were lot of brand new (and new-to-us) events and shows and rides to be experienced. My personal priority was the brand-new Epcot Festival of the Arts.

I arrived on the very last day of this festival. Fortunately, it was early enough that I could run right through the International Gateway from the Boardwalk (our first time staying there and we love it) and have myself a whirlwind tour of what the fest had to offer.

And for the most part, what Artful Epcot had to offer in terms of art was... Epcot itself, being artful. Epcot really is a downright beautiful place, and the many artists working throughout the park on both temporary and lasting pieces made it all the more lovely. Furthermore, since they were preparing for the upcoming Flower and Garden Festival, the gardens were fabulous works of science-art.

And cooking is a science and an art as well. Don't you forget it. This festival wasn't about to let me. Yeah, it turns out that this was really the Festival of All Arts, But Mostly Culinary Arts. I didn't have time to try any of the food, but what I saw looked like it was more visually appealing than appetizing. I'll direct you to the good old Disney Food Blog to have a look at the many and varied "Deconstructed" food. (I did finally try School Bread this trip and... I don't get it.)

There's also the matter of the Figment's Brush With the Masters scavenger hunt...

I swear to God, years and years of Art History classes and I have no idea how to react to this.

I found my new Twitter avatar though.

Figment's Brush With the Masters may be the ultimate perfect storm of Disney-cutesy and "We can't possibly let kids be bored for even a second in World Showcase aaah!" But it's nice to see something (or anything, really) done with Figment in Epcot proper. And anyway, I want these adorable frames.

Of course, one of the nicest overlooked attractions in World Showcase -one of the things that attracts *me*, at least- are the many galleries to be found in nearly every country's pavilion. I had the "Frozen" concept art gallery in Norway to myself, the Kawaii gallery in Japan was fantastic, and I loved the exhibit of concept art from Shanghai Disney in China. (But somebody help me identify the sheep in the above Twelve Friends. E: It's one of the lambs from "Mary Poppins". Sucks to be Danny from "So Dear to my Heart".) They stick around long after the Festival, thankfully.

I did get to visit one temporary gallery in the Odyssey building (and being open looks real nice on the Odyssey). It was full of lovely concept art by Mary Blair and Herb Ryman, including the above Ryman piece that hit me straight in the childhood.